Parkwood Healthcare Ltd has been awarded the job of monitoring local health and social care services and to champion the views of local people for a two-year contract from 1 April this year.  They will run Healthwatch Kingston, an official watchdog which will provide public information and advice about health and social care services, and hear complaints.

Healthwatch Kingston, a social enterprise body independent of the council, will promote the involvement of local people in monitoring, commissioning and providing services, help people understand the choices available to them, and be able to recommend special reviews, investigations or urgent action to national care quality inspectors. Local healthwatch bodies are a government requirement, to ensure that users and patients have a say in how services are run.

Healthwatch Kingston will give the local community influence over those who commission and run services so that providers know what users, carers and the public need and want from them.  Providers must be responsive to what matters to the people they serve.

said Cllr Penny Shelton, Lead Member for Healthy Living and Adult Services

For more information about Parkwood go to www.parkwoodhealthcare.co.uk